Oracle Dump Function

The Dump function returns a varchar2 value that includes the data type code, length in bytes and the internal representation of the expression.

The syntax of dump function is
dump(expression, [return_format],[start_position],[length])

The start_position and length indicates which portion of the internal representation to display.

The return_format specifies the return format. The various return formats and its description are provided below
return format value, description
8 octal notation
10 decimal notation
16 hexadecimal notation
17 single characters
1008 octal notation with the character set name
1010 decimal notation with the character set name
1016 hexadecimal notation with the character set name
1017 single characters with the character set name